~ The Big Four-oh! Vegas & Orlando, Dec '08 - Day 14 ~

[Reetser]

The Big Four-oh! Vegas & Orlando, Dec '08 - Day 14. 26th December 2008

Introduction can be found here.
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5
Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day10
Day11 Day12 Day13

Hello again and thanks for dropping by

DAY14

Boxing Day! I just love saying that in the States because everybody looks at you strange! Seemingly, they don't have it!

Today we traditionally go around to Mum & Dad's for a Buffet and left over Turkey. Sadly as we weren't in the cold of the UK we had to make do with going into Magic Kingdom instead!

I decided today that I was going to really implement my master plan for this holiday. Today we were going to be in for rope drop and beat the rush! I had set the alarm for 6.15 and gave a deadline of out by 7.15. Magic Kingdom is the furthest of the Disney Parks for us so i was keen to make sure we didn't waste any unnecessary time. With showers, Coffee and Toast completed we, and say this disappointedly, missed our 7.15 departure time by a FULL 5 minutes! You read that right readers, FIVE

As normal we took the 429 toll road which cuts through Orange Lake and which brings you onto Disney property by Coronado Springs. We made the short journey from there up to Magic Kingdom (flashing our annual passes for free parking ) and parked up in Chip & Dale 10 at 7.40am.

We jumped onto the first monorail and made our way over to the Main Entrance. It was on this journey that we checked our watches and realised we were going to be late for the opening ceremony and most importantly rope drop by wait for it, a FULL FIVE MINUTES! See what have to put up with here. Amateurs the lot of them

With this disappointment very short lived we proceeded through the bag check (I will leave the puns about 'poking' to the master!) and popped into get a stroller for Katie because we know that she will always have a sleep later in the day.

The first thing that was obvious about the weather this morning was that it was very foggy! I am sure on all of our other trips that we have never seen fog before but it actually gave the castle and main street quite an eerie feeling!



We decided at this point that we would briefly split from Mum & Dad. They didn't really want to rush around and they certainly weren't fussed about doing much in the way of headliner rides. They fancied the idea of Buzz Lightyear and so we arranged to meet up with them in about 3/4 of an hour to an hour out side the BLSR entrance.

With our plan hatched, we headed straight over to Space Mountain because we missed it off our schedule at Easter and I knew it was due to be closed for an upgrade when we next go in August. I must admit I actually HATE this ride. I find it puts my back out for days when I go on it. I simply go on it to humour Rees. I have to wedge myself with my back completely pushed against the back of the seat with my legs locked! I hope during the upgrade they manage to buy some smooth track

As you would imagine at this early hour (8.20 ish) it was a walk on. Which is a dam site better than can be said to the walk off! As I bent double and hobbled my way back to earth I couldn't help but call my self a silly little ****!

As we spilled back out into Tomorrowland we saw the girls (who had been pin buying again!) and Katie came running over to me to ask could she take me on the Tomorrowland Speedway. Now imagine my pain at this point for two reasons. One, when your little girl comes running at you, arms open wide, you jut can't help but gather her up in full sprint and swing her wildly around you! Ooh, that's gonna hurt even more in the morning! Then when she asks if she can take you on a ride you can't say no. You can't say no even when you know that what she means is can I drive you around that track in anything but a straight line, bashing left and right of the middle track, meaning that every few seconds I could go, Ooh, Ow, Ahh etc.

Driving Miss Daisy has nothing on this girl! The wait here had risen slightly from no line to 5 minutes which is certainly the shortest wait time I have ever seen posted on this ride. We joined the line and jumped into our cars and sped off in record time. Rees shot off first, with Katie and myself following immediately behind but as we bounced off the inner rail more times than I care to count we never saw him again until after we had got off the ride!

From here we decided that as there was only a 5 minute time advertised on Buzz we would jump on it to now as a 4 and then still get to ride it again with Nana & Grandad in a bit. The queue was actually a walk on with many empty cars going in front of us. We battled our way around the ride and got off to compare scores. It is at this point that I stand ashamed in front of all of you I lost by 1,500 points to Karen. She posted a time of 139,000 and me 137,500. If you could see me now you would see that my head is hanging in shame!

With a bottom lip stuck so far out you could sit a small family on it I dragged my heals over to the Monsters Inc. laugh floor to see if the humour in here could crack a smile! Anyone keeping up with things from my introduction will remember that I said I was looking into doing some new things in the parks and this show was one of them. It has been here on our last few visits but we seem to have rushed on past without making the effort to pop in. I am glad we did this time as the kids really enjoyed it. A concept similar to Turtle Talk at Epcot with audience participation! Good fun

As we came out of the show we spotted Mum & Dad sat under the Astro Orbiter/Tomorrowland Transit Authority. They had had a nice leisurely start to their day with a visit to the bakery for some croissant and coffee along with a horse drawn carriage up Main Street.

As we were altogether again, the kids decided that we had to go back on Buzz and take Nana & Grandad with us. Now I know that I let myself down earlier by being beaten on Buzz but I felt that maybe this was the time that I was going to rectify things. Not being at all competitive I said that it was only fair that Karen rode with Rees and that I rode with Katie. You see with Katie, she is more than happy to sit in the car and fire her gun, leaving you in complete control of the car. With Rees the total opposite can be said! Unless we are spinning around at about 40 revs a minute then we haven't 'done' Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger SPIN

As Karen wouldn't give up her privileged position I had no choice but to limit the spins down to 20 a minute so I could win! With the added pressure of my first ever failure so recent I pulled out all the stops to record a score of 156,000 beating Karen by a whopping 27,000! It was only now that I could claim the moral victory of not only a winning aggregate but also the tops score of the morning.

With my 2 victories (it's my trippie and therefore my rules!) I declared that that would be the last time we rode Buzz this holiday! It was now on to ride the TW Transit Authority and take a leisure look around Tomorrowland. Once again this was a new one on Mum & Dad and this kind of ride is about mum's level! Perhaps not eclipsing Soarin' as her favourite but very enjoyable all the same!

Not sure it is going fast enough for these two!



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[Reetser]

After finishing our little ride on this we decided that we would now make the short journey over to Fantasyland as we wanted to do Mickey's PhiharMagic. Now I suppose this is another embarrassing confession (two in one report!) but we have never done this 'show' before. I find it incredible that we haven't to be honest considering we have been into the Magic Kingdom so many times over the years! There just didn't seem the point or the time before. It wasn't until I read about it on so many people's trip reports that I realised it might be worth a look!





As we made our way into Fantasyland a very nice lady stopped us and gave us a 'Bonus Fastpast' for a party of 6 for Philharmagic and the time was within 30 minutes. Perfect! As this was the case we decided to grab some fastpast tickets for Pooh Bear and ride Snow White via the Stand by line. The wait time posted was 40 minutes but we didn't feel too bad about this because of our bonus passes meaning that as soon as we had got through Snow White we would be able to ride 2 rides in succession.

Fortunately, the stand by line was through within less than 30 minutes so very bearable. We watched Mickey's PhilarMagic next and then hit Snow White. All these rides/shows ticked off and it wasn't even Midday! We decided now as time for an early lunch and ice cream. We found a nice table in Fanatsyland in between Ariel's grotto and Pooh Bear Character meet and set to on our sandwiches that Karen had generously prepared last night!

After our brief lunch stop the kids had a little play in the play area here whist we enjoyed a bit of shade. By now the sun had burnt off the early mist and it was really turning into a nice hot one

I think this photo taken by Grandad nicely illustrates how sunny it had now become!



As it was now about 12.15 we decided that we would make our way through the Castle so that we could position ourselves on the 'wheel' for a view of the 12.30 parade. We didn't have long to wait before the parade arrived with it's Christmas theme and Santa to close it.

I know this first one was show on my Intro Thread but I include it again because 1) I like it a lot and 2) It's my rules!



I took this lovely one of the spider on the tree but somehow Mickey got in the picture also! (you might have to click on the yellowish top bar to zoom in)









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Katie blowing one back!





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With another excellent parade at a close we decided that we would make the pilgrimage to Tinkerbell's Pixie Hollow to meet her and her fairy friends. Knowing that we were most probably in for a long wait Mum & dad decided that they might have a little wander of their own and we decided to meet up at around 2.15 somewhere around the main entrance.

We made our way over to Toontown and joined the line for Tinkerbell that said 45 minutes! Unfortunately it took the full 45 minutes but by now with a mixture of heat and general tiredness it actually felt like 75! This is a new addition for us as she hadn't opened her hollow at Easter so Katie was looking forward to this one. We decided this time (in our efforts to do NEW things) that we would get autographs on white hats rather than in the traditional autograph books. We have so many books kicking around the house that we thought this would be a novel thing for the kids that they could bring back on future visits. We bought a load of Sharpie pens in all different colours so that they could choose a different one for each character that they met.









There were only 3 fairies in here which was a little disappointing in view of the time taken to queue but all the same, the characters had a lot of time to spend interacting with the children.

Time was now approaching 2.10 so we headed out of the Pixie Hollow and went back out into Toontown. Katie wanted to go into Minnie's house as it had been closed back in Easter for maintenance so whilst they they did that, Rees and I took the opportunity to rest room and stock up on some water. We always do the 'freeze' a few bottles the night before and let the melt in the day and by now they were fantastic!



The route through from Minnie's house to the restrooms was a manic one now as the sheer number of visitors to this area made it almost impossible to walk without bumping into one another. This coupled with the heat made the decision for me that today's 'touring' had now been completed. Once Karen and Katie appeared I suggested that it was now maybe time to call things a day and go and rest and people watch! We decided to leave the stroller in toontown by the station and join the queue for the next train. Unfortunately the next train came and went before we could get on due to the sheer numbers waiting in line!

As we stood in the queue watching the train depart, what I saw next was the highlight of my holiday! It made me laugh so much that I still chuckle now as I think about it! Towards the back of the train I spotted Mum & Dad on a row on their own. Seemingly they had got on at Main Street with the sole purpose of 'doing a circuit' to pass some time so that they could meet us at the entrance. As they passed I saw my Dad, arms folded, fast a sleep! Now bearing in mind how long he had actually been on the train (minutes!) it goes to show why I titled him 'Chief power napper' in my introduction! I was just so disappointed that I didn't have my camera ready quick enough!

We managed to jump on the next train and made the short trip round to Main Street station where we departed and me with Mum & Dad who by now had managed to secure some rocking chairs on the verandah of Town Square Exposition Hall. For anyone not sure where this is, it's basically on the right hand side of the Town Square which is immediately after you have entered the park and headed under the station.

This is where I felt the master plan really kicked in. I have repeated on previous days about my perfect plan for this trip was to be in early, do plenty, eat early, do a bit more and then watch people go about like headless chickens. It was now time to cue TOWN SQUARE! We sat here for over an hour just chilling completely. It was very relaxing to watch families entering the park and rushing off to secure fastpasses or join lines for character autographs.



We took it in turns to sit in the rockers in between popping into the shop to look at pins. Grandad believe it or not even found yet more time for another power nap!



We watched the band play and watched them lower the flag before the 3.30 parade started again. We stayed here until about 4pm and decided to head out of Magic Kingdom to make our way over to Animal Kingdom Lodge for our 5pm Boma Dinner reservation.



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[Reetser]

On our way back to the car we chose to ride the Ferry as we were in no particular rush.







Once off the boat we jumped on the tram to head back to the car park. This is where we realised a problem about getting in early. Firstly, the tram heads off in completely the opposite direction of the car park and drops off there first before doubling back over to our side of the car park but then this is where the second problem lay. The car park we were in is classed as the staff car park 'over spill' and so the tram doesn't stop there. He whistled on straight past Chip and Dale to drop off at other locations. We finally managed to catch the cast members attention and we got off eventually! Good job we had time factored in!

We left the car park and made the trip over to AKL for again something that was a first for us. We booked an ADR here after reading so many good reports on the Dibb so we were really looking forward to it.



I couldn't really get a good tree picture in here due to the dark light at the bottom and the bright light at the top!







As I said this was our first visit into both AKL and Boma. On the whole we liked what we saw but were a little disappointed with the animals on show from the viewing area. It was most probably just the time we looked in but that's all we can comment on. The food in Boma was also good. I wouldn't go overboard and say it was fantastic but there were no complaints (but it beat cold turkey!). The deserts were lovely and probably just saved the day!

The following picture was taken by Rees of Katie. God knows what he said to her or what face she is pulling but I thought it funny enough to include!



(normally I would amend the red eye but I feel it adds to that picture!)

As we had managed to get seated at 4.50 for our ADR we were out at a little past 6.30. With this in mind we headed back to Orange Lake and popped in for a quick swim with the kids. With another busy day planned for tomorrow (Rees, Karen and myself) we were all in bed between 10 and 11.

A classic theme park day in my opinion and one logged firmly in the memory bank!

SEE YOU REAL SOON!

Day 15 can be found here.

[walt4it]

Amazing day in Magic Kingdom - great day, great parade, great pictures and a sleepy grandad! Shame about Boma ( still better than buffet and left over Turkey!)-
but what a way to spend Boxing Day.

[cathann]

What a great day. I love your parade photos!

[Guest]

Waht ana amazing day. Thanks for sharing.

[Guest]

Fantastic day and pics, really like the parade ones.

[Guest]

Excellent day. Fantastic planning. The parade pics are great.